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Because most pros buy what they need. They’re not going to spend $5k on a sub-optimal machine that’s less than they need, with the thought of upgrading later; they’ll pay 8k or 12k from the outset. And for a certain subset of pro users, iMac Pro is the “proper” solution.

Why do people continually use proper when referring to a personal preference for something they consider better. omg he bought a Toyota, why didn’t he go to the Lexus dealership and buy a proper car. It’s a little condescending, and a tad arrogant, to presume you know what’s “proper” for everyone.

/rant
I am not so sure about your reasoning. There are "Pro" computers and then there are "Pro" users. When I am configuring a "Pro" computer, I will likely target 50-100 cores over 2-4 chips and upwards of 1TB RAM for a CPU intensive task and 4+ quadros for a GPU intensive task. Neither of those is realistically done by an iMac Pro. What Apple released is really just their version of a workstation for "Pro" users. Frankly I will not bite as I prefer a larger monitor (30+ inches) and a dual monitor set-up. I set someone up with a 4 monitor set-up once and now they can't live without it. I think it was foolish of Apple to assume that many workstation users would downgrade their usual monitor setup just to gain faster internals.

To me the best Apple buy right now is the trash can Mac Pro. You can get 64gb RAM for around $300 right now, and couple that with the computer that you can get on sale for $1600 and for less than $2 grand you have a very sweet Mac workstation.
 
I am not so sure about your reasoning. There are "Pro" computers and then there are "Pro" users. When I am configuring a "Pro" computer, I will likely target 50-100 cores over 2-4 chips and upwards of 1TB RAM for a CPU intensive task and 4+ quadros for a GPU intensive task. Neither of those is realistically done by an iMac Pro. What Apple released is really just their version of a workstation for "Pro" users. Frankly I will not bite as I prefer a larger monitor (30+ inches) and a dual monitor set-up. I set someone up with a 4 monitor set-up once and now they can't live without it. I think it was foolish of Apple to assume that many workstation users would downgrade their usual monitor setup just to gain faster internals.

To me the best Apple buy right now is the trash can Mac Pro. You can get 64gb RAM for around $300 right now, and couple that with the computer that you can get on sale for $1600 and for less than $2 grand you have a very sweet Mac workstation.
And where can you get a 6-core or 8-core nMP for $1600?
 
I am not so sure about your reasoning. There are "Pro" computers and then there are "Pro" users. When I am configuring a "Pro" computer, I will likely target 50-100 cores over 2-4 chips and upwards of 1TB RAM for a CPU intensive task and 4+ quadros for a GPU intensive task. Neither of those is realistically done by an iMac Pro. What Apple released is really just their version of a workstation for "Pro" users. Frankly I will not bite as I prefer a larger monitor (30+ inches) and a dual monitor set-up. I set someone up with a 4 monitor set-up once and now they can't live without it. I think it was foolish of Apple to assume that many workstation users would downgrade their usual monitor setup just to gain faster internals.

To me the best Apple buy right now is the trash can Mac Pro. You can get 64gb RAM for around $300 right now, and couple that with the computer that you can get on sale for $1600 and for less than $2 grand you have a very sweet Mac workstation.
What part of my reasoning aren’t you sure about? As I said, for a certain subset of pro users, iMac Pro is the right solution. For them.

If you need 50-100 cores and a terabyte of RAM, that’s fine. But that requirement represents a fraction of a percent of pro users in general. Apple has nothing for you. Not many users buy $30k-50k workstations.
 
Coming from a pro, I believe most of us have a custom spec or configuration in mind, but I would love to hear if anyone is actually planning to go into the store to buy a default config.

If you want to use it for serious 4K editting you need the top model. Here that will set you down over 15.000 euro!!
And that is for a machine that, after two years, is nearly antique and not upgradeble! NO puting in a new videcard, memory, processor. Nothing!

Schermafbeelding 2017-12-15 om 05.50.34.png
 
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hmm I can build my own killer PRO machine with similar specs and save about 2k lol
Nobody is stopping you. But you also have to realize that people who use a high-end Mac to actually make money probably don't want to mess around with Windows or, worse, waste countless (billable) hours trying to keep a Hackintosh running.

But yeah, if you're into customizing and whatnot, this clearly isn't the machine for you anyway.
 
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On a sidenote, those fugly LG's surrounding the svelte space grey iMac chassis make me miss Apple's Cinema Display even worse.
 
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One thing for sure, will be a sexy looking iMac .
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That makes no sense.

Once you buy it -- whether iMac, iMac Pro, Mac Pro or anything else -- it doesn't much matter if Apple continues to develop followup machines in the line. Whether they do or not, you're still going to have the computer sitting on your desk.

Actually as a Mac Pro owner, takes a long time for Apple to fix things like BT for example, it got so bad I bought wired mouse and KB, support is not great for a product they sell so little of
 
If you want to use it for serious 4K editting you need the top model. Here that will set you down over 15.000 euro!!
And that is for a machine that, after two years, is nearly antique and not upgradeble! NO puting in a new videcard, memory, processor. Nothing!
Just to correct one point: You can put in memory, you just have to pay a service fee for somebody to put it in.

And the same principle applies to the rest. Upgrading might be significantly more expensive, but you can always buy a new iMac Pro in two years and sell your old one. Using bidvoy.net, a two-year old iMac 5K is still worth $1150 (from a starting price of about $2000).
 
I've owned several top-of-the-line Macs over the last several decades and I'm sad to say that I have almost no interest in owning an iMac Pro. I would MUCH rather see an upgraded Mac mini (with user accessible memory and disk, like the late and great 2012 model with the i7 option) or a new Mac Pro.

No doubt, the iMac Pro is an interesting design and in some ways an engineering triumph, but IMO without user accessible memory and in its current form it really doesn't qualify as a "Pro" machine.

Just give "us" a simple box with a high-end processor, lots of room for memory expansion, user accessible storage, and options for several different video configurations. That's all I need, I don't want yet another $1K display bundled with the computer nor do I need a completely sealed unit that has practically no upgradable components.

Just my opinion, but I don't think this is going to be a big hit.
 
$5k? $13k? It's too expensive. I have two MB cars of 10 times each and a house of 100 times in cash but $5k~$13k for a desktop computer or $1.2k for a phone with apple care+ is too much for me. I'm out.

So you probably pull in $60-100k annually, and in California, middle, perhaps upper middle class. Good for you. But you're still oblivious to the demographic that Apple is targeting for this Mac.

This Mac Pro isn't a top version of a line of product the way an iPad Pro, iPhone Plus are to rest of the lineup. It's a completely different line of product designed for completely different type of customers. Since you flaunt about Mercedes Benz, lets put it in car terms. This Mac Pro isn't even an AMG version; it's akin to a GT3 -- built and sold for racing teams with a budget for a $400-500k car (minus the non-customizable aspect).

Customers who would buy the new iMac Pro are companies that have a budget to buy at least serval of these and have a workflow that generates large enough revenue to justify the $5k price tag -- video production companies, big recording studios, research (actual "Pro" and not the so-called Pro name everyone seem toss around or believe to be).

And $5k is a lot (almost absurd) to spend on a computer for normal people, but it's actually quite small for those who use it as tool to make money. The faster speed (increased productivity) for those who benefit from it can pay for itself many times over in a year. Youtubers, for example, can make $2-3k per million views on ads revenue. For the relatively famous ones who post daily and get 250k-1 million views (vloggers, there a lot of them), $5k is nothing in exchange for what they can make back faster.

Apple is not targeting the professional Instagram/Facebook/Grandma & Grandpa productions with this Mac Pro. That's what the new iMacs are for.

Apple made great stuff before Tim, Terrible stuff with Tim, and now they're getting back on track. Give credit where credit is do, people.


Why would any pro user want to spend that much on a machine that they can't upgrade?...

...Why would ANYONE pay that much money for something that's guaranteed to be doomed.
 
Earlier in the year when I saw the $4,999 US price tag, I was was really concerned what the price would be by the time it got to Australia....$7,299!! Sorry that is just mental. I assumed is was going to be very expensive. As a Mac user for 25 years, and a self employed video producer I decided to jump ship to a 16core Threadripper PC, w 64GB Ram, GTX1080ti 11GB video card, M.2 boot drives. Fully maxed out was $5000 AUD, and the best part, it has no built in monitor. I can plug it in to my 3 displays, and have a 4th "40" Sony Bravia sitting on the wall as a playback monitor. If Apple had released a MacPro in 2017, I might have bought that, but my old 5,1 is already 7 years old. I've got work to do. I can't wait forever for a proper Pro machine. And a tip for anyone jumping to Windows, remap the Alt key to a Control key, now muscle memory is not a problem. It's what I had to do stay in businees, don't flame me :)
As per Google, USD4,999 translates into AUD6,500, and USD4,999 does not include VAT.
AUD6,500 + 10% GST = AUD7,150
AUD7,299 sounds about right.
 
I bought my first Windows PC today; first time in over 20 years. Sorry Apple, but you've lost me now...probably forever.
 
The default config is gimped hard.


:apple: pads most of the margin into their base product model.
As with just about every :apple: hardware release, notching up every option by one satisfies the majority.

10-core
64GB
2TB
Vega64

I agree. That certainly seems like the sweet spot with regards to both specs and pricing.
 
At the bottom of Apple's iMac Pro press release today:

In addition to the new iMac Pro, Apple is working on a completely redesigned, next-generation Mac Pro architected for pro customers who need the highest performance, high-throughput system in a modular, upgradeable design, as well as a new high-end pro display.​

This iMac Pro and press release make me excited for what power the next Mac Pro will bring. If we go by the old tower design, two processors bringing in 36 cores would be a relatively safe guess. Modular systems could even mean adding even more mainboard units to a stack for a server cluster like system.

Not that I'd need that power for years to come, but offering that sheer power would be a statement by Apple.
 
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If you want to use it for serious 4K editting you need the top model. Here that will set you down over 15.000 euro!!

View attachment 742118

a little polemic, aren't we? ;-)

If you are this type of professional that requires an 18core, 128GB RAM workstation, and use it adequately as a professional generating this type of 4K or 8K content, or VR content etc etc....

then, this 13k machine (net price, come, the VAT is reimbursed) costs you, AT MOST, 20€ per day (provided you work 200 days per year).
I'd glady buy this machine off of you for 5k€ + VAT in two years.

So I'd say this is a very worthwhile investment. (For people really using this machine and making a couple of grand per month doing so)
 
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